i. 



P 653 
Copy 1 



THE BOOK OF 

The Pageant of 
Yankton 




COPYRIGHT 1916 BY JOSEPH MILLS HANSON 



THE BOOK OF 

The Pageant of 
Yankton 

— BY— 
JOSEPH MILLS HANSON 



GARDEN TERRACE THEATRE 

Vankton, South Dakota 

JUNE 14. 15 and 16. 1916 






OFFICERS OF THE PAGEAXJ' 

AND 

MEMBERS OF COMMITTEES 

Master of the Pageant 
Miss Zinita Barbara Graf 

Author and Organizer of the Pageant 
Joseph Mills Hanson 

Stage Manager 
George H. Durand 

Master of the Music 
Leslie R. Putnam 

MUSIC COMMITTEE 
Miss Marie Toohey Miss Anna Gordon Arthur Taylor 

Master of the Robes 
Everett M. Valentine 

COSTUME COMMITTEE 
Miss Alice Daugherty Miss Virginia Pierson 

Mrs. Hoyle H. Gilreath Mrs. Jessie Bartholomew 

Mr. Fred B. Ray Mr. Charles Dowling 

Miss Edith Gamble Miss Olive Pierson 

Mrs. Imogene Walker Miss Helen Miner 

Mrs. Laura De Forest 

Master of the Properties 
H. E. McCulloch 

PROPERTIES COMMITTEE 
John Max Miss Mabel McCreedy 

J. T. Coxhead George A. Clark 

D. D. Gross 

SEATING COMMITTEE 

James Gamblp, Chairman 

PERFORMER^ .COMMITTEE 
T. A. Harmon, Chairman 
Miss Sibyl Wilde Cornelius C. Cunningham 

Mrs. Marie Lawton Mrs. T. A. Harmon 

YANKTON COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE 
Charles Smith, Chairman 
S. M. HoHF Michael R. Magner 

D. B. Gurney Wm. J. Fantle 

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE 
W. C. LusK, Chairman 
M. M. Bennett , George W. Fitch 

Harry A. Robinson ^ G. C. Moore 

George L. Crisp q^^^^ ^^^y.. 

MAY -I 1916 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

THE ULTIMATE CITY 

The Arrival of the Yanktons 

FinST EPISODE 

CHARACTERS IN FIRST EPISODE 
You-i-A-SAN (the Warrior) f 

Wakon-o-big-nax (the Flying Medicine) ( "^''^"^^tf^" Scouts. 

E-HANK-TON-\VAN, the Presiding Spirit of the Locality. 
Medicine Man 

Head Chief of the Yanktons 
Yankton Warriors, Women and Children: Dancers. 

(The stage represents a glade at the foot of the bhiffs of the Mis- 
souri River at Yankton. In the face of the bluff is the entrance to a 
cave. Enter, from the left, Wakon-o-big-nan and You-i-a-san.) 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
Why further, You-i-a-san, need we fare? 
No lovelier land than this lies anywhere. 
Ahead the valley narrows, but at hand 
Mark how the broad woods cluster, band by band, 
And down the furrowed bluffs, whose summits lie. 
Plumed with the prairies, clean against the sky. 
The tall, straight trees, green-pennoned, steeply flow. 
Like warriors rushing to the plain below. 
No doubt that Wakontonka led us here. 

You-i-a-san. 
Wakon-o-big-nan, brother, you speak clear 
My own swift thoughts. Full many a moon has run 
Since first the Yankton's weary march begim. 
Buried by time like grass by winter's snow. 
Seem memories of the homes we used to know 
Among the Northern lakes, whose crystal sheen 
Give back the encircling forest's dusky green. 
Snug w^ere our bark -thatched wigwams, where they stood, 
Furthest of all, against the virgin wood. 
Guarding the proud Dacotah's seven bands. 

Wakon-o-big-naii. 
Aye; but the wild things vani-shed from our lands. 
Our bows, still true, could find no game to slay; 
We could but go when it was death to stay. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 



Yoii-i-a-san. 



Yet weary marches brought but troubled days 
Far to the South. The warlike loways, 
Seeing we sought their prairies, stood like men 
And fought as fights the grizzly for its den. 
No peace was there. So, turning to the West, 
Still on the Yankton's toilsome march has pressed 
Into these regions distant and unknown. 
Our Teton kinsmen gave us for our own. 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 

But not its prairies, where the bison pass 

Like shadows down the hills of waving grass, 

Nor yet its valley, whose still waters flow 

Beneath the willows, sinuous and slow, 

Showed us a spot our tribe might call its home 

While all the varying seasons go and come. 

Yet now, at last, when seemed our search in vain. 

Here, at the very end of that great plain 

Whence winds the hushed Pewakpa, like a bride 

To meet the brown Missouri's rushing tide, — 

Here is the place we dreamed! 

You-i-a-san. 
These grassy vales 
Will feed vast pony herds. Wild winter's gales 
May howl unheeded on the camps that lie 
Beneath these tree-trunks, towering toward the sky. 
Beyond the bluffs, whose strong, encircling arms 
Hold, like a lover, all the valley's charms, 
The bison graze in myriads. At its feet 
Whirl the Missouri's waters, wide and fleet. 
Truly, Wakon-o-big-nan, till we tread 
The Happy Hunting Grounds of warrior dead. 
No fairer spot our eyes shall see. The track 
Runs out and ceases. Let us hasten back 
And tell our people here is joyful end 
Of all the Yankton's toils. 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 

But first, my friend. 
To Wakontonka give we thanks. This trail 
He set our feet upon. Nor must we fail 
To speak the Manitou whose spirit broods 
Among these forest-templed solitudes. 
(The two warriors raise their arms and faces and address the Deity.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 5 

You-i-a-san. 
Like the blown down of the milkweed 
We have drifted, Wakontonka. 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
Blown through lands of war and hunger 
Where we could not rest nor flourish. 

Yoii-i-a-san. 
Now, at last, oh, Wakontonka, 
From the lands of war and hunger 
Thou hast led us to this valley; 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
Led us to this sheltered valley, 
Where the waters from the prairies 
Laugh among the trees and grasses. 

You-i-a-san. 
We are grateful, Wakontonka ! 
All thy children of the Yanktons 
Will rejoice and build thee altars 
In this land which thou hast shown us. 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
Here shall rise the smoke of fires. 
Smoke of sacrifice and worship; 
Prayers that evermore thy people 
In this place may dwell secure. 

You-i-a-san. 
Grant that always on the prairies 
Shall the bison herds be plenty; 
Grant that in our skin-built tepees 
Shall be food and warmth each winter. 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
Till our spirit doctors praise thee 
With their mystic incantations. 
Thus we praise thee, Wakontonka, 
For our people of the Yanktons; 
Thus we pray thee for the future, 
W'e, thy children, Wakontonka! 

(Their invocation concluded. You-i-a-san, glancing about with super- 
stitious uneasiness, turns to Wakon-o-big-nan.) 



6 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Yoii-i-a-san. 
Your medicine is strongest. Therefore, you 
Invoke this valleys' lurking Manitou, 
Lest our intrusion stir his latent wrath 
To loose his evil spirits on our path, 
Stampede the bison, slay the colt new-born, 
Beat down with driven hail our growing corn 
And thus undo us. 

(While You-i-a-san is speaking, ttie spirit of E-hank-ton-wan ap- 
pears at the entrance of the cave above the Indians and stands looking 
at them. Wakon-o-big-nan discovers her.) 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 

Look! On yonder hill. 
The Manitou! She moves. She speaks. Be still! 
(The Indians prostrate themselves.) 

E-hank-ton-ivan. 
No dream it was, that voice of men 
It seemed but now I heard, 
Which mingled with the river's song, 
The lilting of the bird. 

Once more the feet of human kind 
Have found my sylvan gate, — 
But have they come, the kingly ones. 
For whom my secrets wait? 

Ah, no! These trembling, bronze-skinned folk, 

Untutored, groping, blind. 

Can never sow the seeds of hope 

That blossom in the mind! 

These are the kin of those who came 
To build, and dwell, and pass. 
Whose crumbling earthworks long ago 
Were knitted o'er with grass. 

They have not trod the sunset trail 
Whose long leagues lead to me, — 
They cannot vision on these hills 
The city here to be. 

I weary. In my cloistered glades 
So long I wait, so long, 
To greet the dreamers of my dream. 
The singers of mv song! 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 7 

I weary of the bronze-skinned folk; 
Like leaves upon the wind 
They swirl along the stream of years 
And leave no trace behind. 

Yet, — now their age leans to its close; 
The East grows pale with dawn; . 
Fond romance round their names will cling 
When all their tribes are gone. 

While still the earth is theirs to roam 
And here they wish to live, 
The simple joys they seek of me 
I will not grudge to give. 

(She stretches out her hands to the two Indians, who slowly and 
wonderingly arise and contemplate her, and then the scene which 
follows. As she proceeds, a group of her attendants, the spirits of 
Plenty, come out from the stage entrances and, advancing down stage, 
dance before the Indians.) 

Good hunting! On yon wind-swept plains 

The bison range at will; 

The elk and bounding antelope 

Await the hunters' skill. 

Good fishing! Past my forest walls 
The swift Missouri sweeps, 
Where trap and spear find finny spoil 
Among the clouded deeps. 

Good cheer beneath my lacing boughs! 
When winter blizzards blow 
Warm may the circled tepees be, 
Bright may the camp-fires glow! 

May earth yield fruitage for your store; 
Soft be your skies and blue! 
My children of the dusk of dawn, 
Hail! — And fare well to you! 

(E-hank-ton-wan withdraws into the cave. The spirits of Plenty 
conclude their dance and take the background as another group of 
E-hank-ton-wan's attendants, the spirits of Shelter, come out from the 
stage entrances and dance down stage. Both groups join in a final 
measure, then withdraw through stage exits. The two Indians look 
at one another with bewilderment which changes to exultation.) 

Yon-i-a-san. 
Have I but dreamed? Did you, too, see and hear? 



8 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Wakon-o-big-nan. 
I saw. I heard. The Manitou spoke clear 
Her welcome to our tribe. 

You-i-a-san. 
And those, her sprites, 
Danced us the sign talk of untold delights. 

Wakon-o-big-iian. 
Yoi-he! Yoi-he! Across the cloud scud white 
The moon will sail her swift canoe tonight 
And laugh to see the wanderers of the plain 
Snug in the tepees of a home again! 

Come, speed, to where their toilsome march they wend 
And show them this new Village at the End! 

(The Indians exit left at a run. For a moment the stage is empty, 
then Indian music is heard, increasing in volume as the Yankton In- 
dians, winding down through the trees at the left, come straggling on 
by the left entrance. They are led by the Head Chief, who is guided 
by You-i-a-san and Wakon-o-big-nan. The body of the Indians come 
on singly and in groups, the men carrying merely their weapons, the 
women bearing bundles or dragging travois loaded with household 
goods, cooking utensils and the material for tepees. All show evi- 
dences of weariness but as they reach the stage and look about, their 
spirits revive and they joyously set up their tepees. Some of the 
women gather branches and faggots and start fires before the tepees. 
The young men with their bows and arrows and lances gather down 
center, awaiting the Medicine Alan. He finally emerges from his 
tepee, grotesquely attired, and, shaking his rattle, advances down cen- 
ter. The Indians cluster about, watching him.) 

Medicine Man. 

We hunger, friends. Our bellies, long denied, 

These many moons for plenteous meat have cried. 

But Wakontonka now has led our bands 

Among the bison's choicest grazing lands. 

Need famine keep us lean of limb and face? 

Out, brawny hunters! To the chase, the chase! 

(Howling approval, the young men begin circling in the Buffalo 
Dance, while other warriors, squatting around the circle, accompany 
the dance with the sound of tom-toms, whistles and rattles. The Med- 
icine Man, shaking his rattle, silently invokes the Great Spirit. Pres- 
ently certain dancers burst into the following song, the remaining 
Indians joining in the refrain.) 

"Song of the Hunter"— Music by Leslie R. Putnam. 

First Hunter. 
My horse is swift as a buck in spring. 
Yah-hool 

But my horse can run! 
He takes the hills like a bird on wing 
And the bison flee when his hoof-beats ring. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON i) 

(Refrain.) 
Yah-hoo! 
But his horse can run! 

Second Hunter. 
My bow shoots straight as a wolf can leap. 
Yah-hoo! 

But my bow shoots true! 
It buries its arrows feather-deep 
And the bison sinks in a crumped heap. 
(Refrain.) 
Yah-hoo! 
But his bow shoots true! 

Third Hunter. 
My knife cuts deep as the stinging sleet. 
Yah-hoo! 

But my knife is keen! 
It flays the hide from the smoking meat 
And carves the flesh that the tribe shall eat. 

(Refrain.) 
Yah-hoo ! 
But his knife is keen! 

(With a final burst of leaps and yells, the young warriors rush off 
through the right wing exit. The Medicine Man stalks into his tepee, 
the remaining warriors lounge or mend their weapons at the tepee 
doors; the women take up their household duties, cooking or dressing 
skins, the children play about the camp. Then again the Medicine 
Man appears, walks down stage, observing the sky and the surrounding 
landscape, and beckons to the women, who gather around him.) 

Medicine Man. 
The spring is here. Long since, in warm, still nights. 
The wild geese southward winged their arrow flights; 
The snow its white robes folded from the hills 
And ran with gurgling laughter down the rills. 
The marshland frogs are loud when day is done. 
The chickens' drumming, greets the rising sun. 
'Tis time the good corn lind its second birth. 
Take you your hoes and mellow up the earth 
And plant the seed, that, when the harvest nears, 
We feast to surfeit on the young, green ears 
And still have left, when winter comes again. 
Enough in plenty of the garnered grain. 

(Getting their hoes and ears of corn from their tepees, the women 
troop off by the stage exits, laughing and chattering. One of the 
buffalo hunters runs in at right wing entrance in excitement and 
alarm. He is followed by several others. The people of the camp 
hastily gather around them.) 



10 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Hunler. 
' A foe! The Pawnees struck us on the plain 

While we were dressing bison we had slain. 
' They thought to rout us, but we gave them fight 

And drove their blustering braves in headlong flight. 

Head Chief. 
To arms! The peaceful Yanktons seek no strife, 
Yet coward blows we answer with the knife. 
To horse! Though we pursue the Pawnee bands 
Beyond the Niobrara's desert sands. 

(The Head Chief and all the warriors rush to their tepees and se- 
cure their arms, and the women build up the fires. Gathering about 
the Medicine Man, who engages in mystic incantations, the warriors 
execute the Ha-kon-e-crase, or Eagle Dance, a part of the War Dance, 
accompanied by tom-toms, rattles and whistles. As they dance they 
chant the following song.) 

"Eagle Song." — Music by Arthur Taylor. 
Warriors. 
We are birds of prey; 
Yea, lordly eagles of war. 
Where the torn clouds play 
We wheel on our wings and wc soar. 

Far beneath, our foe, ' 

Slow creeping, seeking our track. 

Does not see nor know 

That soon we will sw^oop on his back. 

Though the wind is strong 

We breast it, eagles in flight, 

And it bears us along. 

Like arrows, to plunge in the fight. 

(With a whoop, all the warriors but three or four, led by the Head 
Chief, rush off through right wing exit. The Medicine Man and the 
remaining warriors return to their tepees, and the women and children 
resume their previous occupations. Presently the Medicine Man again 
emerges and advances down stage, the women gathering around him.) 

Medicine Man. 
The sun, the cloud, the wind, the trailing rain. 
By turns have nursed the tender, growing grain 
Until the little stalks a hand might hide 
Stand, like young warriors, tasselled in their pride. 
Women, whose right it is to tend the corn 
E'en as you tend the children you have borne. 
Bring ears to show if yet the fecund soil 
Rewards witli ripeness all your faitliful toll. 



THE PAGEANT OE YANKTON 11 

(Several women go out by the stage exits and return with ears of 
unhusked green corn. The Medicine Man examines each ear with de- 
liberation and much mystery, then addresses the camp triumphantly.) 

Medicine Man. 

Ye Yanktons, still to Wakontonka dear, 

Make merry and rejoice! The feast is here! 

Let pots be swung. Heap up the fires high 

Until the whirling sparks leap toward the sky! 

Fetch now the ears; the best that can be found, 

Heavy with kernels, lolling toward the ground; 

And stalks like spears, all feathered forth with leaves. 

To grace the Green Corn Dance with festal sheaves! 

(With laughter and cries of glee some of the women and children go 
off through stage exits to bring the ears and the stalks, while others, 
under direction of the Medicine Man, build a fire down the center of 
the stage, erect a tripod of poles over it and suspend thereon an 
earthenware kettle. The warriors, returning from the pursuit of the 
Pawnees, begin straggling in. Ears of corn are placed in the kettle, 
boiled, then burned on a low scaffold over the fire as a sacrifice to 
Wakontonka. The kettle is now filled with green ears by the Medicine 
Man and while they are boiling, the men, in an inner circle around 
the fire and the Medicine Man, the women and children in an outer 
circle, each one bearing a corn stalk, perform the Green Corn Dance, 
singing the following songs.) 

(Song of the Green Corn. Music by Anna Gordon ) 
The Yanktons. 

The young corn. 

The young corn. 

It ripples in the sun 

And down its aisles of dancing green 

The swift cloud shadows run. 

Above its ranks each tassel nods 

Its proudly bending crest 

Like bonnets of a warrior band 

Against the crimson West. 

The green corn, 

The green corn, 

Its burnished leaves a-sway 

Hold gossip with the vagrant breeze 

That blows from far away. 

They gossip of the swelling ears 

Whose cups of fragrant milk 

Are hidden by their sheltering shade 

In baskets sewed with silk. 



12 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

The good corn, ' 

The good corrij. 

It gives us of its cheer. 

To make the summer feast time 

Most joyous of the year, 

And when the snows are drifting. 

Its white and purple seed 

Holds hunger from the lonesome camps. 

Through winter's days of need. 

(At the conclusion of the song, the dance ceases and everyone 
crowds around the kettle and helps himself. Eating to surfeit, they 
enter the tepees or lie down on the ground near the smouldering fires 
and go to sleep. One young warrior sleeps near the top of the left 
sta^e steps.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 13 

SECOND EPISODE. 
Scene 1. 

The Coming of the First White Man, 1 780 
CHARACTERS IN SCENE 1. 

Pierre Durion, Sr., First White Settler of Dakota. 

A Yanktox Warrior. 

Head Chief of the Yanktons. 

Hee-lah-dee, daughter of the Head Chief. 

E-hank-ton-wan. 

Yankton Warriors, Women and Children: Dancers. 

(Enter from the left, Pierre Diirion, Sr. He pauses at the top of the 
steps, looking over the sleeping camp, then advances to the nearest 
warrior and contemplates him musingly). 

Durion. 

An Indian camp beneath this hillside wall. 

I know them not, and yet, I know them all. 

A hive of bees which sleeps through golden hours 

While summer floods the fields with honeyed flowers; 

A droning hive, which, drunk with one sweet draught. 

Cares nothing when another may be quaffed! 

(He touches the sleeping warrior with his foot. The Indian starts 
up, then, at sight of the strange white man, sinks back on his elbow, 
transfixed with superstitious awe.) 

Warrior. 
A spirit from the clouds! A Manitou! 

Durion. 

No spirit, friend. A man of flesh, like you, 
But come from camps full many a march from here. 
Pray, lead me to your chief and have no fear. 
(The warrior conducts him to the tepee of the Head Chief and 
arouses the latter, who comes forth.) 

Warrior. 
Oh, chief, I bring a stranger from afar, 
White-skinned, with face all shining, like a star. 
(The Head Chief, startled and curious, but with dignified courtesy, 
advances and greets Durion.) 

Chief. 
Welcome, tall paleface from the distant East. 
Rest in our sheltered camp and share our feast. 



14 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Durion. 
I give you thanks. With wandering I am spent. 
Here I will rest, as in a brother's tent. 

(They seat themselves before the tepee of the chief, who fills and 
lights his pipe and passes it to Durion. While they smoke and talk, 
the other Indians awaken and gather in groups, whispering and look- 
ing curiously at Durion and his musket.) 

Durion. 
Have you no white man ever seen before? 

Chief. 
You are the first. But where we lived of yore, 
Among the lakes, strange tales we used to know 
Of palefaced men who traded with our foe. 
The Chippeways, for furs and skins of game. 
Giving them sticks that thundered and spat flame 
And killed our braves with spiteful little stones 
Which tore the flesh and broke the stoutest bones. 

Durion. 
You are Dacotahs, then? The name I knew. 
In Chippeway 'tis called Naduwesioux? 

Chief. 
We are Dacotahs. Ours the Yankton band. 
Whose village at the end was wont to stand. 
Come you from that far fort where traders wait. 
At Mackinac, beside the narrow strait? 

Durion. 
I come, great chief, from yet more distant lands, 
Further than Mackinac's hard-pebbled sands; 
Beyond Niagara, where, with gathered might, 
The waters of the lakes, in headlong flight. 
Leap from the clifls against the canon's floor 
With thunders that outcrash the tempest's roar. 
I come from lands where white men's towns, in scores 
Dot the Saint Lawrence' low and meadowed shores. 
The great salt sea, whose waters rise and fall. 
Lies there, and big canoes with white sails tall 
Ride in from far beyond its restless waves. 
Deep with the goods the wandering Indian craves. 

Chief. 
Can you, then, sell us white men's goods? 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 15 

Diirion. 

Not I. A hunter of the plains and woods 

I range the wild, content if I may find 

Clothing and food; the rest is peace of mind. 

I crave the new-found river's welcoming hymn, 

The lift of hills, beyond whose purple rim 

Lie valleys never seen of white men's eyes. 

I crave the prairies, o'er whose midnight skies 

The slow stars weave their tapestries of light; 

The aisles of winter forests, hushed and white 

In sifting snows. I crave the smoky gleam 

Of Indian camp-fires by some sheltered stream, 

And all the ties that knit in brotherhood 

Red men and white, through Nature's motherhood. 

Chief. 

White hunter, these are words that reach my heart 
And teach me yours. Pray, do not depart 
But bide with us. 

Diirion. 
Nay, friend. My heart still seeks 
The morning light on yet unvisioned peaks. 
The youth of France is hot. Her sun that shines 
Betw^een the Rhine and Rhone on terraced vines, 
Has burned his blood with vagrancy's desire 
As it has burned her grapes with purple fire. 
Across uncharted realms her hunters go. 
Keen, not with zeal to conquer, but to know. 
As friends they greet the red man, eye to eye. 
To smoke, to talk, to eat, and then pass by. 
Nothing but love, the Frenchman's guiding star. 
Can stay his feet from wanderings wide and far. 
It may be 'tis the flashing of her smile 
That leads him ever onward, mile by mile. 
Groping yet eager, over unknown ground. 
But far to seek and often never found. 
Is love. 

Chief. 

Perhaps the love you seek is here. 

Diirion. 
Would that she were! I've sought her far and near, 
But sought in vain. 

(The Chief turns to his tepee and beckons to one within. Hee-lah- 
dee emerges and Durion regards her with instant admiration.) 



10 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Durion. 
I dream! Else dreams come true 
In fairer visions than my dreaming knew. 
Oh, chief, who is this maiden, sweet and tall 
As bronzen hollyhock beside the wall 
Of my old mother's garden, far in France? 

Chief. 
She is my daughter. 

Durion. 
'Tis a heaven-sent chance! 
The maid is passing fair. I ask her hand. 
Here with the Yanktons, having her for bride. 
Fain would I end my wanderings and abide. 

Chief. 
Woo thou the maiden. Ask her not of me. 
Hers is her life and hers the choice must be. 
But, if she find you good, I shall rejoice 
And all the Yankton tribe will praise her choice. 
(Durion leads Hee-lah-dee down stage, while the Chief and other 
Indians retire to camp.) 

Durion. 
Sweet maid, last night upon a sandbar's breast. 
Haunted with bony snags, I took my rest. 
I watched the flowing tints of sunset's dyes 
Paint with their splendors all the western skies. 
Nor dreamed so soon one maiden's eyes, for me 
Would hold more beauties than the sunset sea. 
Give me your heart and happiness to hold; 
Them will I treasure more than garnered gold. 
The secret joy to which my soul aspired 
Here in the wild, nor knew what it desired, 
Lies now revealed in your averted cheek 
And heaving bosom. Maiden, pray thee, speak. 

Hee-lah-dee. 
You woo full swiftly, as a strong man should, 
Yet as no Indian warrior ever woo'd. 
Oh, white man, to my race you bring a strange, 
Chill portent of impending grief and change; 
But, come what may, my heart with rapture cries 
Because you look on me with lover's eyes. 
Take me; without you I shall know no rest. 
Hold me, a prairie blossom, on your breast. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 17 

Diirion. 
Sweet hope fulfilled! Desire's budding hour 
Sudden expands to love's eternal flower. 
The clouds, the hazy hills are etched with dreams 
Rosy as sunrise. All the little streams 
Seem banked with bloom and plushed with tender grass 
Whereon fond lovers' loitering feet may pass, 
And nature is by smiling spirits blest. 
To grace the wedding of the East and West. 

(Embracing, Durion and Hee-lah-dee turn to re-enter the camp when 
the spirit of E-hank-ton-wan appears in the mouth of the cave. They 
stop, looking at her.) 

E-hank-ton-wan. 
Aye, sturdy wanderer of the wild; 
That here thou may'st abide 
The spirit of E-hank-ton-wan 
Hath given thee a bride. 

Thou searcher of the purple hills 
Seeking the unblazed way; 
Thou voice across the wilderness 
Crying the risen day, 

Thy dauntless hand has grasped the veil 
Which hides the years to be; 
Thy voice has roused the sleeping soul 
Or dormant destiny! 

Like trailing mists the dead years fade 
And faint, by far winds borne, 
The whisper of the coming hosts 
Sweeps up the slopes of morn. 

Oh, youth, the fates conspired thy birth; 
Blest are thy ways, oh, maid; 
Through thee I see my city rise, 
On thee its hopes are stayed. 

(E-hank-ton-wan retires within her cave as a group of her attend- 
ants, the spirits of Exploration, come in at the stage entrances and 
begin their dance down stage. While it is in progress, the Indians grad- 
ually appear again in the camp and are all once more in evidence at 
its conclusion. Durion and Hee-lah-dee watch the dance for a mo- 
ment, then retire into the camp where Durion parts with the Indian 
maiden and exits. The spirits of Exploration retire by the stage 
exits.) 



18 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

SECOXD EPISODE. 
Scene 2. 

The Arrival of Lewis and Clark at Yankton, August 29, 1804 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 2. 

Pierre Durion, Sr., the guide of Lewis and Clark, 

Pierre Durion, Jr. 

Hee-lah-dee, wife of Pierre Durion, Sr. 

We-u-cha (shake hand), Head Chief of the Yanktons. 

Mah-to-re, (the white crane). 

Paw-naw-ne-ah-pah-be (struck by the pawnee) / Sub-Chiefs of 

A-we-a-we-cha-che (half man). \ the Yanktons 

Captain Meriwether Lewis, U. S. A. 

Captain William Clark, U. S. A. 

Sergeant John Ordway, U. S. A. 

Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor, U. S. A. 

Soldiers, Frontiersmen and Voyageurs of the Lewis and Clark 

party; Yankton Warriors, Women and Children. 

(Coming down through the trees, the Lewis and Clark party enter 
from the left in straggling procession. Captain Lewis and Captain 
Clark are in the lead, guided by Pierre Durion, Sr. Most of their 
followers are armed with muskets, knives, etc., while some carry 
canoe paddles and others packs of goods. As the party approaches 
the left side of the stage, the Indians gather excitedly at its right 
side, in front of their village. When Lewis and Clark with their guide 
mount the left steps, Pierre Durion, Jr., runs forward from among 
the Indians, followed by his mother, and greets the elder Durion.) 

Durion, Jr. 
Father! Welcome home! 

Durion, Sr. 

My son! It is joy to be with the Yanktons again. 

(Hee-lah-dee comes forward and embraces her husband, the elder 
Durion.) 

My beloved wife! Is all well with you? 

Hee-lah-dee. 
All is well. These many moons I have been lonely for you. 

Durion, Jr. 
Yesterday, father, I met you and the American captains at the 
mouth of the River au Jacque. I told you that at Green Island, 
across the Missouri from the Yankton village, our people would 
council with the great father's two sons. This is the place. 
Our people are here to meet them. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 19 

Diirion, Sr. 
{Conducting Lewis and Clark to the Yankton chiefs, who have 
come down stage.) My brothers, these are the sons of our new 
great father. They are come in friendship to tell us of his wishes 
and aims toward us. {To the officers, introducing the chiefs,) 
We-u-cha, head chief of the Yanktons. 

}ye-u-cha. 
How, koda. (Greetings, friend.) 

Da r ion, Sr. 
Mah-to-ree. Paw-naw-ne-ah-pah-be. A-we-a-we-cha-che. 

(Introductions over, We-u-cha indicates to his subordinate chiefs, 
to the captains and to the Durions that they shall sit in council circle. 
As they comply, some warriors outside the circle begin shaking their 
rattles. We-u-cha produces a calumet pipe, fills, lights and smokes 
it, then passes it to Capt. Lewis, next to him. The pipe is passed round 
the circle, each one taking a whiff. When it has returned to We-u-cha. 
he signifies to the white men that they may speak. Captain Lewis 
I'lses.) 

Lewis. 

My brothers, we are come by a long journey to bring you 
messages and presents from your new great father. He is named 
Thomas Jefferson. He is the head chief of a mighty nation of 
white men called the United States of America. The warriors of 
our nation are beyond counting; like gn>sshoppers in number. 
Thomas Jefferson has now bartered from Napoleon Bonaparte, the 
great chief of the French, the rights which the French and the 
Spanish held over your country. {He pauses and speaks to 
Durion, Sr.) Pierre, can't you make those pestiferous fellows 
stop shaking Iheir rattles? {Durion, Sr., goes to the warriors in 
question and induces them to stop. Lewis proceeds with his 
speech.) You must take no more medals or presents from the 
Spanish or the British, but only from the Americans, who in fu- 
ture will care for your rights and protect you from your enemies. 

{Lewis turns to his party.) Sergeant Pryor, bring forward the 
flag. {Pryor brings forward a United States flag on a staff and 
plants the latter in the ground beside Lewis, then retires to his 
party. Lewis touches the flag.) 

This is the flag of the American nation, to which you now owe 
loyalty. Now I will give you the presents your great father has 
sent to show his love for you. {He turns again to his party). 
Sergeant Ordway, have you the presents ready to distribute? 

Ordway. 
{Coming forward with presents). Here they are, sir, all ar- 
ranged. 



20 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Lewis. 
{Approaching We-u-cha, who rises.) For the head chief, We- 
u-cha, here is a flag of his new country, the United States; a fine 
medal from tlie great father; a certificate; and a string of 
wampum. Also a coat of the American army; and a hat with a 
red feather, very becoming for a great chief. 

(As Lewis hangs the string carrying the medal over We-u-cha's 
neck and hands him the other presents, the chief examines each with 
growing delight. Then he puts on the coat and hat, throws the flag 
over his shoulders, sticks the certificate in his pipe bowl and parades 
before his admiring tribe.) 

Clark. 

{Distributing other presents.) A medal and a coat and tobacco 
for Mah-to-ree. A medal and a hat and tobacco for Paw-naw-ne- 
ah-pah-be. A medal and a cape and tobacco for A-we-a-we-cha- 
che. 

(The lesser chiefs imitate AVe-u-cha and parade before their people. 
Amid general merriment, Sergeants Ordway and Pryor distribute 
knives, tobacco and beads among the warriors and women. In a mo- 
ment, We-u-cha, resuming his dignity, returns to his seat in the coun- 
cil circle, followed by the other chiefs, Lewis and Clark and the 
Durions. We-u-cha rises.) 

We-u-cha. 
1 see before me my great father's two sons. You see me and 
the rest of our chiefs and warriors. I went formerly to the Eng- 
lish and they gave me a medal and some clothes. When I went 
to the Spanish, they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep it from 
my skin. Now you give me a medal and clothes. But still we 
are poor and I wish, brothers, you would give us something for 
our squaws. 

(We-u-cha takes his seat and Mah-to-ree rises.) 

Mah-to-ree. 

I have listened to what our father's words were and I am glad 
to see how you have dressed our old chief. My fathers have 
made me a chief. I had much sense before, but now I think I 
have more than ever. I will confirm and do whatever our old 
chief and you please. 

(Mah-to-ree takes his seat and Paw-naw-ne-ah-pah-be rises.) 
Paw-naw-ne-ah-pah-be. 

I am a young man and know but little. I cannot speak well. 
But I have listened to what you have told the old chief and will 
do whatever you agree. 

(Paw-naw-ne-ah-pah-be takes his seat. Then We-u-cha rises, fol- 
lowed by the others, and all sh'ake hands, the captains mingling' with 
the chiefs, their party with the warriors. Presently Durion, Sr.. draws 
Captain Lewis down stage.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 21 

Durioii. Sr. 

I am told, sir, that one of our Yankton women has given birth 
to a son. Would it be well that the mother should have a present? 
(Lewis calls Clark, who comes down stage.) 

Lewis. 

Here is a chance to make an impression on these Yanktons. Old 
Durion tells me that one of their women has given birth to a son. 
Let us send the mother an American flag. 

Clark. 

Or, perhaps better, let us send for the child and wrap him in a 
flag. That will seem "big medicine" to the Indians. 

Lewis. 

(Slapping Clark on the shoulder.) Capital, old man! That is 
precisely what we will do. (He turns to Durion, Sr.) Let the 
mother bring her child to us here. 

(Durion goes to a tepee and leads forth an Indian woman carrying 
a baby. She is accompanied by her warrior husband. Durion, Sr., 
conducts them to the captains, who have, meantime, secured a flag 
from one of the packs. The Indians and the men of the exploring party 
gather about the group. Clark essays to take the baby in his arms, 
but Lewis laughingly interferes.) 

Lewis. 

No, I'll hold the baby and you do the honors. I'm not much 
up on this sort of thing. 

(Lewis takes the infant and Clark ostentatiously wraps the flag 
about it, then addresses the Indians.) 

Clark. 

People of the Yanktons, by the act of robing this child in the 
beautiful flag of his new country, we make him a good and loyal 
Ameri-can. I prophecy that this little boy will grow to be a great 
chief, a brave and wise leader of his people, and a true friend 
of his brothers, the Americans. May the blessing of the Great 
Spirit rest upon him. 

(Lewis returns the child to its mother, who promptly passes it to 
her husband and, seizing Lewis, begins dancing with him. The other 
squaws rush to the other white men and force them to dance and for 
a moment there is a hubbub of merriment. Then Lewis and Clark 
disengage themselves and wave their followers back. The Indians, ex- 
cept the chiefs, retire toward their tepees. Lewis and Clark meet 
We-u-cha down stage.) 



22 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Lewis. 
We could wish to stay longer with you, but we must press on to 
the great sea beyond the Shining Mountains. No doubt white 
traders will soon follow our trail and bring you goods such as 
you have long wished. Fare you well, Yanktons. 

(The chiefs and the captains shake hands cordially, as do the cap- 
tains and the Durions, who remain with the Indians. The Lewis and 
Clark party gather up their packs and, headed by the officers, go off 
in straggling pi-ocession through the right wing exit, the Indians 
waving farewell. The Durions disappear through a stage exit. The 
Indian village resumes its routine appearance.) 

SECOND EPISODE. 
Scene 3. 

Founding of Frost, Todd & Co.'s Post at Yankton, Jure, 1 858 
CHARACTERS IN SCENE 3. 

CAPTAIN Daniel M. F'rost, ) Fur traders and ex-United 

Captain James B. S. Todd \ States Army OfTicers. 

Strike-the-ree, Head Chief of the Yanktons. 

George D. Fiske, the factor of the Yankton Post. 

James M. Stone, an employee of the fur company. 

An Old Warrior. 

Another Warrior. 

A Young Warrior. 

A Yankton Girl. 

Employees of the fur company; Yankton Warriors, Women and 

Children. 

(Captain Frost and Captain Todd, followed by Fiske, Stone and sev- 
eral frontiersmen in their employ, enter at the left. Frost and Todd 
ascend the left balcony and look over the Indian village and its sur- 
roundings. Their followers pause at the front of the balcony. The 
white men are not at first discovered by the Indians.) 

Frost. 
This is the place. Captain Todd, to which I have frequently re- 
ferred. It strikes me we should build here one of our principle 
trading posts. 

Todd. 
Yes, I know this place. It is the village of the Yankton In- 
dians under chief Strike-the-Ree. 

Frost. 

Precisely. It is a good point for trade. 

(An Indian boy. coming, in his play, near the left steps, sees the 
white men and rims back into the camp, excitedly. Strike-the-Ree 
comes from his tepee, looks over to white men and walks toward left 
steps.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 23 

Todd. 
And an ideal location for a townsite. Look at the country; 
circled by hills, natural drainage, fine river front, rich soil. This 
country is sure to be opened for settlement in a short time. 

Frost. 
Very true. (Seeing Strike-the-Ree.) Here comes the old chief 
now. We will see how he takes to the idea of our establishing 
a post here. 

(Frost and Todd descend from the balcony, cross to steps, followed 
by their men, and greet the Indian chief. The Yanktons gather before 
their camp.) 

Frost. 

Chief Strike-the-Ree, my partner, Captain Todd, and I, wish to 
erect a trading post here by your village. 

Strike-the-Ree. 
You will be welcome. It will be pleasing to me and my band. 

Todd. 
And to the rest of the Yankton tribe? 

Strike-the-Ree. 
I cannot talk for Chief Smutty Bear. But even when I was a 
baby, I was made an American by the great father's brave sons, 
Captain Lewis and Captain Clark. So I am loyal to the Americans 
and I keep my people loyal. 

Frost. 
Are Smutty Bear's young men likely to make trouble for a post 
located here? 

Strike-the Ree. 

Not here. I and my people will protect it from them. 

Frost. 
Captain Todd, we had better consult with the chief as to the 
exact location for the fort. Mi'. Fiske, you know you are to be- 
come the factor of the post among the Yanktons. 

Fiske. 
Very good. Captain Frost. I am ready to begin the construc- 
tion of a building and to commence trading. 

Strike-the-Ree. 
My people would barter for some needed articles at once, if 
the while men are ready. 



24 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Frost. 

Any time. Fiske, attend to them while Captain Todd and I 
talk with Strike-the-Ree. 

(Frost, Todd and Strike-the-Ree retire up stage while the Indians 
of the camp crowd around Fiske and the other white men, who pro- 
duce some trading goods from their packs.) 

An Old Warrior. 
{Shoiving some robes.) Six buffalo robes like this. Three year 
bulls; very soft, very fine. I want powder and ball. 

Fiske. 
(Examining robes.Q A hornful of powder and twenty balls 
for the six robes. 

Old Warrior. 
0-yah! Thief! Robber! I part with them only for six horns full 
of powder and six times twenty balls. 

Fiske. 
You have the brain of a Meazel to think such a thing. Stand 
aside and let the next come. 

Another Warrior. 
{Pushing the first aside.) I have for trade four red fox skins, 
thirteen beaver pelts and nineteen buffalo robes. I want fire- 
water for them all; much fire water. 

Fiske. 
You get no firewater till the rest of the trading is done. Next! 

A Young Warrior. 
{Accompanied by an Indian girl, who is tittering bashfully.) 
Ten brass bangles and two round looking glasses. 

Fiske. 
"What skins have you? 

Young Warrior. 
An antelope skin and two buffalo robes. 

Fiske. 
{Examines skins.) The bangles and mirrors are worth these 
and one more antelope skin. 

Young Warrior. 
{Turning away.) It is too much. {Looks at the girl, who is 
plainly disappointed, then throws down the skins demanded). 
Well, I will Uike them. {Fiske hands him the bangles and mir- 
rors. He retires with the girl and assists her in putting on the 
adornments.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 25 

The Old Warrior. 
(Returning.) I will give my robes for three horns of powder 
and sixty balls. 

Fiske. 
You trouble me so much that, to be rid of you, I will give you 
one and a half horns of powder and thirty balls. It is my last 
word. 

Old Warrior. 
It is very bad. It is very little. But, if I must — (He gives the 
robes and receives the powder and balls.) 

(Frost, Todd and Strike-the-Ree come down stage.) 

Todd. 

It is settled, George, that you are to build the cabin on the bank 
of the Missouri under the big cottonwood trees just above where 
the steamer is moored today. You'll have to quit trading now and 
come back to the boat with us. 

Fiske. 
All right, Captain, I'll be right along. (To the Indians.) No 
more trade today. Come to the new fort tomorrow. (Fiske and 
his men pick up their packs and robes and follow Frost and 
Todd.) 

Frost. 

(Shaking hands with Strike-the-Ree.) Good-bye, Strike-the-Ree. 
May the Yanktons and the new trading post get on famously to- 
gether! 

Strike-the-Ree. 

How, koda! 

(Exit the white men through the right wing.) 

SECOND EPISODE. 
Scene 4. 

Negotiation of Treaty for Cession of Yankton Lands, 1858 

(This scene epitomizes events extending over a period 

of about two years.) 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 4. 
Strike-the-Ree. 

Smutty Bear, Chief of a Band of Yanktons. 
Captain James B. S. Todd. 
Charles Picotte, an educated half-breed. 
W. P. Lyman, ) 

Zephyr Rencontre, v Frontier Characters. 
Theophile Brughier. \ 
Yankton Sub-Chiefs, Warriors, Women and Children. 



26 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

(Strike-the-Ree and three of his sub-chiefs assemble before Strike- 
the-Ree's tepee. Smutty Bear and three of his warriors enter at the 
right wing and approach the tepee. In front of it they exchange 
greetings wth Strike-the-Ree and his party.) 

Strike-the-Ree. 
Smutty Bear, it is by the wish of Captain Todd, the trader, 
that I have sent for you and the other chiefs of the Yanktons. He 
has summoned us to a council. He says the great father has asked 
him to meet us for a big talk. 

Smutty Bear. 
Of what is it that lie wishes to talk? 

Strike-the-Hee. 
He told me nothing more. 

Smutty Bear. 
I like it not, Strike-the-Ree. Never do the white men mean 
good to the Indians when they call a council. They have some- 
thing to gain; we, something to lose. 

(Todd, followed by Lyman, Rencontre and Brughier, enter at the 
left). 

Strike-the-Ree. 

We shall soon know. Captain Todd comes. 
(The Indians and white men exchange greetings, then seat them- 
selves in a council circle down stage. Captain Todd rises.) 

Todd. 
Strike-the-Ree, Smutty Bear, and other chiefs of the Yanktons, 
I come charged by the great father at Washington to enter into 
talk with you regarding the sale of some of your lands to the 
United States government. 

Strike-the-Ree. 
The sale of some of our lands? What lands does the great 
father wish to buy? 

Todd. 
The lands lying between the Big Sioux River on the east, the 
Missouri River on the south and west, and the East Medicine 
Knoll, the Snake and the James Rivers and Lake Kampeska on 
the north. 

Smutty Bear. 
{Springing to his feet.) What is this you dare to ask? These 
are all the lands that the Yanktons possess! 

Todd. 
The government will pay liberally for them and will set aside 
a reservation for the Yanktons. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 27 

Smutty Bear. 
We will not part with them at any price! The white men seek 
to drive the Indians from the face of the earth. I and my people 
will fight to the death, but we will not sell our lands! 

Strike-the-Hee. 
The white men are many as the leaves of the forest, Smutty 
Bear. We might light them, but we should only lose in the end. 

Smutty Bear. 
Still, we will not give up everything and be driven like bison 
from our prairies. 

Strikc-the-Ree. 
The government may pay a fair price, which will keep us from 
future want. {To Todd.) But this is too great a matter to be 
settled in a moment. We must have time to consult among our- 
selves. 

(The chiefs all rise and go up stage, where they talk together. They 
dispatch one of the lesser chiefs, who goes out rigtit stage exit. The 
rest return to the white men.) 

Strike-the-Ree. 
There is one we would have with us before we talk further. 
Wc await him. 

Todd. 

Who is this that you await? 

Strike-the-Ree. 
He will come soon. Meantime, we wait. 

(There is a moment of tense silence, the Indians standing to the 
right, the white men to the left, watching each other. Then Charles 
Picotte, accompanied by the sub-chief sent to find him, enters at right 
wing and joins the Indians. He is fashionably attired in civilized gar- 
ments and wears a frock coat. He consults with the Indians, then ad- 
vances to Todd and his party, who have discussed his appearance 
curiously.) 

Strike-the-Ree. 

This is E-ta-ke-cha, the man we have been waiting for. 

Todd. 
This is Charles Picotte, whom the white people much esteem. 
But why have you been waiting for him? 

Picottte. 
■ I am asked by my Yankton brothers to act as their counsel in 
the important matters which you have brought before them. 



28 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Todd. 
By what authority can you represent the Yanktons, Mr. Picotte? 
Your father is a white man. 

Picotte. 
It is true that my father is Honore Picotte, the Saint Louis fur 
trader. But my mother is a Teton, my wife is a Yankton, and 
you are aware, Captain Todd, that General Harney recognized me 
as third chief of the Yanktons at Fort Randall, in 1856. There- 
fore, I have every right to represent them. 

Todd. 
Nevertheless, it is an entirely irregular proceeding, Mr. Picotte. 
I can only treat directly with the chiefs of the Yankton bands 
as a body. 

Smutty Bear. 
E-la-ke-cha will speak for us. Otherwise we will not council. 

Todd. 
I regret that I cannot agree, Smutty Bear. Mr. Picotte, I shall 
have to ask you to withdraw. 

Picotte. 
Very well. Captain Todd. 

(Picotte turns and goes off right. All the Indian chiefs follow him. 
As they approach the right wing exit, Todd calls after them.) 

Todd. 
Mr. Picotte! 

(Picotte pauses, the chiefs doing likewise.) 

Todd. 
I will recognize you as counsel for the Yanktons. You may 
speak. 

(Picotte and the chiefs return to the stage.) 

Picotte. 

It is the wisest course. Captain Todd. Very probably we can 
come to an agreement. What does the government offer for the 
Yankton lands? 

Todd. 

The government offers the sum of one million, six hundred 
thousand dollars for the lands, to be paid in certain annual in- 
stallments over a period of fifty years. It will also set aside a 
reservation for the Yanktons of four hundred thousand acres on 
the Missouri River above Chouteau Creek. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 29 

Smutty Bear. 
It is not enough for our beautiful country! I and my band will 
not sell at such a price. 

Strike-the-Ree. 
It is not wise, Smutty Bear, for the antelope to paw the earth 
when he faces the mountain lion. Let E-ta-ke-cha speak for us. 

Picotte. 

I think, my brothers, that it will be best for the Yanktons to 
accept the great father's offer. The white men draw so near that 
they will soon overrun our lands and hunt there, whether we will 
or no. Rather than lose them and receive nothing in return, is it 
not better to make a bargain which will give you food and cloth- 
ing and a home and such teaching to our children that, at the end 
of fifty years, they will be able to care for themselves as the white 
men do? 

Strike-the-Ree. 

E-ta-ke-cha, you speak clear my own swift thoughts. Yet many 
a moon has run since first the Yanktons made here their Village at 
the End. To me, it is like looking upon the dead face of a loved 
child, thus to leave the homes of our fathers in my old age. 

(The lesser chiefs gloomily signify their agreement with Strike-the- 
Ree.) 

Smutty Bear. 

I see not why we should. My heart breaks with grief and anger. 
But if it is the will of my people and the other chiefs of the Yank- 
tons, I can but yield. 

Todd. 

{Producing a document.) Here is the treaty, ready written. 
Sign. 

(Rencontre picks up an Indian drum, and Todd lays the treaty upon 
it. First Strike-the-Ree, then Smutty Bear sign by crosses, Todd guid- 
ing the pen for them. Then Picotte signs his own name, then the 
lesser chiefs by crosses, as before. Each Indian, after he has signed, 
draws his blanket over his head and slowly passes out by right wing.) 



SECOND EPISODE. 
Scene 5. 

Departure of the Yanktons From the Yankton Towns ite 

July 10, 1859. 
CHARACTERS IN SCENE 5. 

Major A. H. Redfield, first United States agent to the Yanktons. 
Strike-the-Ree. 



30 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Earliest Settlers of Yankton; Yankton Warriors, Women and 
Children. 

(Major Redfield enters from the left. The Indians, including the 
chiefs, who have returned to the camp through the stage entrances, 
come down stage from their tepees and face him, silently.) 

Eedfleld. 
Yanktons, I am Major Redfield, the agent appointed for you by 
the great fatlier. I have brought the Yanktons their first install- 
ment of annuity goods upon the steamboat, "Wayfarer," which 
now lies at the river bank. You must follow the boat up the Mis- 
souri to your new reservation and I will there distribute your 
goods and make for you a great feast. Come. 

(Redfield goes out right wing. The Indians, with sounds of grief, 
strike their tepees and slowly, in straggling procession, follow him. 
As the last tepees are being struck, Strike-the-Ree comes down stage. 
As he begins to speak, the orchestra commences to play, very softly, 
Kreisler's "Indian Lament.") 

Strike-the-Fee. 
Oh, our loved land, farewell! 
No more our eyes shall see 

The Spring dance down the hillsides like a girl. 
Robed all in green and plumed with nodding flowers. 
No more shall Winter's snows 
Sift softly down upon the sheltered camps, 
Nor shall the young braves feel 
The wdld blood beat their veins 
As lightly on their ponies' backs they fly 
Behind the bisons' thundering stampede. 
Dear valley and dear village, fare you well. 
And bluffs, upon whose wind-swept crests 
Our fathers on their scaffolds lie asleep. 
West, with their blankets drawn across their brows; . 
West, to the setting sun the Yanktons turn 
And leave you to the white men's coming hosts. 
Oh, there, far off beyond the evening star, 
WTiere, wide and wild, the Happy Hunting Grounds 
Outspread their prairies of eternal grass, 
There may we find once more such joy of life 
As we have known in our Dakota lands. 

(Strike-the Ree draws his blanket over his head and follows his 
people. As he does so, the "Indian Lament" swells louder, continuing 
until the last Indian has disappeared by right wing exit. During their 
departure, Charles Picotte alone remains standing up center, Avatchlng 
them. As Strike-the-Ree leaves the stage, a party of white settlers 
enters left, ascends the steps and watches the Indians until they are 
gone. Picotte then joins them.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 31 

THIRD EPISODE. 
Scene 1. 

The Settlement of Yankton, 1859 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 1. 
£-hank-ton-wan, 

James B. S. Todd, 

Joseph R. Hanson, 

Moses K. Armstrong, 

John Stan age. 

Downer T. Bramble, 

Thomas Frick, First Settlers of Yankton. 

John Arend, 

Enos Stutsman, 

James M. Stone, 

George D. Fiske, 

Jerome C. Holman, 

Henry C. Ash, 

Mrs, Henry C. Ash, 

Loveland, a character of early days 

Dancers. 



Founders of the Ash Hotel. 



(The spirit of E-hank-ton wan appears in the mouth of the cave. 
The first settlers remain, as at end of the Second Episode, standing or 
sitting near the left stage steps, while she addresses them.) 

E-hank-ton-wan. 
Hail, vanguard of the hosts of day! 
Hail, ye who lead the conquerors' way! 
Here, in my still retreat, 
The vagrant winds have borne to me, ■ 

Like thunders of a distant sea, ' 

The marching of your feet. 
Down vacant corridors of time 
Since first, from the primaeval slime, 
The earth's green robes were won. 
My soul, in prescient vision knew, 
At last, this land should welcome you. 
Heirs of the ages gone. 

Plains of the mighty, virgin West, 
Plains in cold, sterile beauty drest. 
Your time of fruit draws near! 
Creatures of thicket, vale and shore. 
Tribes of the hills, your reign i^o'er; 



32 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

The conqueror is here! 

The magic of his virile powers 

Shall change your desert wastes to bowers, 

Your nakedness to shade; 

Shall stretch broad, rustling ranks of corn 

Along your stony crests forlorn 

And wheat fields, dappling in the sun, 

Where your mad autumn fires have run. 

The trails your bison made 

Shall grow, beneath his hurrying feet, 

To highway broad and village street 

Along whose grassy sides shall sleep 

Meadows and orchards, fruited deep, 

Homesteads and schools and holy fanes 

To prove that all these fertile plains 

Are turned, by Gods eternal plan. 

To serve the onward march of man. 

(As E-hank-ton-wan retires within her cave, a group of her attend- 
ants, the spirits of Opportunity, come in at the stage entrances and 
begin their dance down stage. The settlers observe them quietly, as if 
conscious of their presence only in imagination. As the dancers retire 
through stage exits, the settlers come to center of stage.) 

Hanson. 
Comrades, I have dreamed. It seemed that but now the presid- 
ing spirit of this place spoke, and bade us welcome. To us, young 
men, who, through danger and hardship, have come here to rear 
our homes, she spread a vision of opportunities beyond even our 
rosy dreams. Those visions will come true if we but stand to- 
gether in loyalty, faith and honor in the building and guiding of 
Yankton, the coming city. 

Armstrong. 
That is a dream which we all feel reflected in our hearts. But, 
if it is to be realized, each one of us must set himself at once to 
the work which he knows and can best do. I am a surveyor. I 
shall establish myself here in that profession, to strike from the 
uncharted wilderness the metes and bounds of property. 

Stanage. ' 

I am a farmer. I have seen a quarter section of land on the 
Jim River not far below Stone's Ferry where I shall take a home- 
stead, build a cabin for my family, and plant my crops. 

Bramble. 
Retail trade has been my business. I shall establish a store 
where the pioneers of this new town and country can secure the 
necessities and comforts of life. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 33 

Frick. 

Like Stanage, I am a farmer. I, too, shall take a claim in the 
fertile valley of the Jim and plant my crops. There is a hollow 
up yonder north of the Military Road where the shoulder of the 
bluffs will break the winter blizzards and the summer rains will 
water the bottom fields. It is the place for me. 

A rend. 

I believe, with Frick and Stanage, in the Jim River valley. 
There I shall take land. 

Stutsman. 

Until law is established, civilization exists only within the 
will of the individual. I shall hang out my lawyer's shingle above 
the door of a log cabin, so that men may, at least, be reminded 
that the laws of the United States still exist among us, even 
though we are at present only an unorganized portion of the state 
of Minnesota. 

Todd. 

Well, boys, let's fall to and begin work. We will never have 
any town or any business except as we build them from the 
ground up. There is no help for us save by our own hands. 

(Several of the settlers pass out through the stage exits and the 
ringing of axes is heard behind the scenes. Some immediately return 
carrying building logs and begin laying up a cabin wall.) 

Stutsman. 

With this cane I can't help in the work, so I'll boss. Hey, lay 
that log straight, there! Rive it off a little more on the edge. 

(Loveland throws down his axe. picks up his stick with a bundle 
tied at one end and starts off right.) 

Frick. 

Where are you going, Loveland? 

Loveland. 

I'm sick of this country. There ain't no apples here. I'm goin' 
back to Misseoury where I can raise freuit. 

Hanson. 
Fruit? The day will come, Loveland, when there will be as 
fine fruit raised around Yankton as in Missouri. 

Loveland. 
Don't believe it. 



34 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Stanage. 

Well, good-bye and good luck, Loveland. This is. no country 
for people who don't believe in its future, but a great place for 
those who do. - 

Loveland. 

{Going off through right wing exit.) Stick to it if you want to. 
Misseoury for me. 

Armstrong. 

(Mopping his brow.) Whew, but this is hot work! And the 
worst of it is, when we stop we must go and cook our own grub 
pile or else go hungry. 

Stone. 
I w^ish somebody would start a hotel. 

(Mr. and Mrs. Ash enter at the left.) 

Bramble. 

I'm afraid a hotel is a luxury tbis village won't have for a long 
time. 

Ash. 

{Coming down stage, followed by Mrs. Ash.) Did I hear some- 
one say "hotel?" I am Henry C. Ash. My wife and I have come 
to Yankton especially to start a hotel. 

All. 
Hooray! 

Mrs. Ash. 
I will begin serving meals at once, if you are hungry. 

.4//. 
{Surrounding her.) Hungry? Show us something to eat! 

Mrs. Ash. 
What do you want for dinner? 

Hanson. 

Anything, so long as it isn't straight potatoes and salt. I've 
been living on those for the last thi'ee months. 

Mrs. Ash. 
We've brought some corn meal with us. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTOJN^ 35 

Todd. 
And there are plenty of fish in the Missouri. 

Ash. 

■ That's it! Catfish and corn bread will be the menu. This Way 
for dinner! • ■. . ^. ■ i 

•,. J J J V.' ■ ^ ■ , '. 

(Exit right with Mrs. Ash.) i- '-.v ' (,) 

All. 

{Following them.) Hurrah for the Hotel d'Ash and catfish and 
corn bread I 

THIRD EPISODE. 

Scene 2. 

Arrival of Governor Jayne, June, 1861 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 2. 

D. T. Bramble 

John Arend 

Thomas Frick 

John Stanage 

George Pike, Jr. 

Obed Foote 

J. B. Hanson 

Enos Stutsman 

H. C. Ash 

James Witherspoon, a character of early days. 

J. B. S. Todd 

William Jayne, first Governor of Dakota Territory. 

Frank M. Ziebach 

Miss Edgar 

Miss Anna Hoyt 

Miss Elizabeth Hoyt 

Four Territorial Officials 

Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, Yankton's first minister. 

Ladies. 

(Arend, Frick and Stanage enter from left and ascend stage. 
Bramble enters at left stage entrance, the doorway of his store, and 
greets them. The other early settlers come in at different entrances 
as the scene proceeds.) 

Bramble. 
Good day, gentlemen. You've dropped into town at the right 
time. 



36 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Frick. 



Why, what's going on? 



Bramble. 



We have just had news that Captain Todd, whom we delegated 
to go to W^ashington and appeal to Congress to grant us territorial 
government, will arrive home today. The boys are all coming in 
to find out what success he met with. 

Stanage. 
That is interesting, sure enough. 

Bramble. 

Yes. {To Arend.) Well, Henry, I haven't seen you for some 
time. How is the farm? 

Arend. 

Well, the farm is still there, but that's all. The shark tooth 
grasshoppers got all the crops I planted. If grasshoppers were 
good to eat, I could have got enough this summer to keep Yank- 
ton in meat all winter. 

Frick. 

You ought not to let litle things like grasshoppers pester you, 
Henry. If you'd had a herd of buffalo trample down your wheat 
field, as I did, you'd know what it is to have trouble in big 
chunks. 

Stanage. 

You should do as I do, Tom; make the buff"alo pay for their 
keep. I was up on the hills north of my place yesterday and shot 
two nice cows, so my family will have meat enough for a month. 
I've got skins to make buffalo coats for all of us, too. 

(They mingle with the crowd as Foote and Pike come down stage.) 

Pike. 
How are you, Obed? Just get in from Sioux City? 

Foote. 
Yes. Traveled all night in a lumber wagon from Vermillion, 

Pike. 

How is Vermillion? 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 37 

Foote. 

Say, Vermillion is booming, I can tell you. I believe it's the 
best town in Dakota; why, there must be fifty people there. It's 
a city, that's what it is. 

(They mingle with the crowd as Ash and Witherspcon, the latter 
with a bundle of clothes on a stick over his shoulder, meet down stage.) 

Ash. 
What's up, Jim? You look as if you are fixing for a journey. 

Witherspoon. 
I am. 

Ash. 

"Where are you going? 

Witherspoon. 

Some of these smart alecks are trying to cheat me out of my 
rights in the Yankton townsite. I'm going to Washington to lay 
my case before the commissioner of the Land Office. 

Ash. 

You'll have to walk clear to Des Moines before you strike a 
railroad. 

Witherspoon. 

Railroad? I haven't any money to travel on a railroad. I'm 
going to walk to Washington and back again. 

(Witherspoon goes off right wing, Ash looking after him in amaze- 
ment. Todd enters hurriedly from left.) 

Bramble. 
(Loudly). "Captain Todd! Here comes Captain Todd. 

(The crowd shouts and gathers toward center of stage, several shak- 
ing Todd's hand as he reaches them.) 

Todd. 
Good news, gentlemen. I'm just from Washington. 

Bramble. 
Have we been granted territorial government? 

Todd. 
Yes. 



38 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

All. 
Hurrah! 

Todd. 

President Buchanan signed the bill organizing the territory of 
Dakota two days before he went out of office. President Lincoln, 
immediately after he came in, appointed Doctor William Jayne, 
of Springfield, Illinois, as governor. The governor and his staff 
of officials will be here directly. 

Ash. 
We must get the people together to welcome them. 

(Ash goes out right stage exit. Ladies, and pioneers not yet on 
enter from various directions and move about stage.) 

Hanson. 
And what news of the southern rebellion, Todd? 

(The orchestra softly plays strains from "John Brown's Body," and 
"Dixie.") 

Todd. 

Bad; very bad. Eleven states have seceded. 

Stanage. 
Do they mean business? 

Todd. 

I fear so. They are raising great armies. One of them threatens 
Washington. We out here on the frontier realize little of the in- 
tense excitement, the grave peril of the nation in the preser^t 
crisis. 

Slatsman. 

But we can support the government loyally with what little 
strength we have. , The Union must and shall be preserved! 

All. 
Amen to that! 

(Governor Jayne and four officials, each of latter carrying a carpet 
bag, enter at the left.) 

Todd. 

Here comes the governor! {The people crowd toward the cen- 
ter of the stage.) People of Yankton and of Dakota Territory, 
three cheers for our new governor, William Jayne! 

(The cheers are given.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 39 

Jayne. 

My fellow citizens and new found friends, I thank you. In 
honoring me you honor our President, Abraham Lincoln. 

A Voice. 

Three cheers for President Lincoln and the Union! 

(The cheers are given.) 

Jayne. 

I shall earnestly strive to give to the people of Dakota a wise 
and patriotic administration. My first duty will be to divide 
the territory into judicial and legislative districts and to call an 
election for the first legislature. The election will be held next 
September and the legislature will convene in March, 1862, at 
Yankton. I shall make this town my official residence until the 
legislature locates the capital here or elsewhere. 

All. 
Hurrah for the capital! Hurrah' for Governor Jayne! 
(Bramble and Ziebach come down center.) 

Bramble. 

Mr. Ziebach, this morning you asked me my price for that lot 
of mine on Third street, where you want to locate your newspaper 
ofFice. 

Ziebach. 

- Yes, sir. You offered it to me for ten dollars. 

Bramble. 

I did. You can readily see, however, that recent events have 
altered the value of real estate in Yankton. You are a new comer, 
so Lwant to be liberal with you. I offer you that lot now at the 
bargain price of one hundred dollars. 

(Ziebach throws his hands in the air. He and Bramble mingle with 
crowd.) 

Todd. 

Governor Jayne, to give vent to their exuberance over your 
arrival and the advent of organized government in Dakota, the 
people of Yankton desire to have a dance and other entertainment 
for your delectation. Will your excellency be pleased to honor 
us with your presence? 

Jayne. 

With the greatest pleasure — upon one condition. 



40 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Todd. 
Which is? 

Jayne. 

That I be presented to one of your charming young Dakota 
ladies, whom I may escort to the entertainment. 

Todd. 

That is simple. I will introduce you to one of our most attrac- 
tive girls. {He conducts Jayne to Miss Edgar.) Miss Edgar, allow 
me to present to you, Governor Jayne. Governor Jayne, Miss 
Edgar. 

Miss Edgar. 

I fear, your excellency, that after Springfield and "Washington 
you will find our efforts at social gaiety rather crude. 

Jayne. 

A man, Miss Edgar, must judge the social quality of a com- 
munity by its women. Since I have met only you, I may truth- 
fully say that thus far Yankton is superior to either Springfield 
or Washington. 

(Chairs are brought and Miss Edgar and Jayne seat themselves, all 
others standing.) 

Ash. 

Yankton is young but it already boasts musical talent. You 
shall judge for yourself, Governor. 

(A quartette composed of Miss Elizabeth Hoyt, Miss Anna Hoyt, 
M. K. Armstrong and J. R. Hanson, renders a medley of popular songs 
of the day, embracing "Belle Brandon," "John Brown's Body," "Oh, 
Susannah," "The Mocking Bird," "Maryland, My Maryland," "Lorena," 
"The Red, White and Blue.") 

Jayne. 

{Amid the general applause.) That is fine; fine! Captain Todd, 
will you present me to the young ladies of the quartette? 

Todd. 

{Bringing them forward.) Miss Anna Hoyt; Miss Elizabeth Hoyt, 
Governor Jayne. {Calls forward the Rev. Melancthon Hoyt.) Their 
father, the Reverend Melancthon Hoyt, rector of our Episcopalian 
church and the first Christian minister to locale in Yankton. 

Jayne. 

It augurs well for the future of art in Dakota that already it 
has developed such excellent musical talent. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 41 

Ziebach. 
Will your excellency be pleased to join with us in a dance? 

Jayne. 
{To Miss Edgar,) If I may have the happiness. . ? 

Miss Edgar. 
Your excellency honors me. 

(They rise.) 

Ziebach. 

{To the crowd.) Governor Jayne and partner will lead a Vir- 
ginia reel. Take your partners! 

(The orchestra strikes up "Money Musk," and the sets form, Jayne 
and Miss Edgar leading in set down stage.) 

THIRD EPISODE. 
Scene 3. 

The Yankton Stockade, September, 1 862 
CHARACTERS IN SCENE 3. 

A Messenger from Minnesota 

Governor William Jayne 

Frank M. Ziebach, Captain of the Militia 

Henry Bradley, a refugee settler 

B. F. Barge, Orderly Sergeant of the Militia 

First Territorial Official 

Second Territorial Official 

Third Territorial Official 

Fourth Territorial Official 

A Sentry 

John Stanage 

Nelson Miner, Captain, Company A, Dakota Volunteer Cavalry 

Charles Picotte 

Newton Edmunds, Corporal of the Militia 

George W. Kingsbury, Corporal of the Militia 

Enos Stutsman 

John La Fevre ("Old Dakota") 

Miss Edgar. "The Girl of the Yankton Stockade." 

A Skulker 

Strike-the-Ree 

Settlers, Frontiersmen, Soldiers of the Dakota Cavalry, Women 

and Children. 

(In the midst of the dance, a soldier, travel-stained and breathless. 



42 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

rushes in from the left and upon the stage. The music stops abruptly 
and the crowd stands aghast.) 

Messenger. 
The governor! Quick! The governor! 

Jayne. 
{Stepping forward.) I am the governor. What is it? 

Messenger. 

The whole Sioux nation has gone on the warpath. The Minne- 
sota frontiers have been swept clean. A thousand settlers are 
massacred. 

All. 
'Massacred! 

Messenger. 

Acton, Redwood Falls and a dozen other towns are in ruins. 
Dakota — Yankton — will come next. To arms! 

(There are confusion and cries of alarm in the crowd.) 

Jayne. 

If this is true, we must instantly protect the town. Who is com- 
petent to lead the defense? 

A Voice. 
Let Frank Ziebach organize a company. 

All. 
Ziebach! Ziebach! 

(Ziebach comes down stage.) 

Ziebach. 

Arm yourselves, men, with whatever weapons you have. Then 
fall in line here. 

(The men rush out of stage exits and return with a variety of fire- 
arms. They form a rough line across the center of the stage. Mean- 
time, refugees, men, women and children, straggle in from the left 
with bundles of household goods. They are exhausted and frightened. 
Among them is Henry Bradley.) 

Bradley. 

(Down stage.) We have abandoned everything in the Jim 
River Valley; left our cabins and household goods and growing 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 43 

crops. Will we be safe here, or should we go to Sioux City? 

Ziebach. 

You will be safe here. Behind this stockade we should be able 
to repulse any attack the Indians can make. (He turns to his men.) 
Orderly Sergeant Barge, mount a suitable guard around the stock- 
ade. 

(Sergeant Barge makes a detail of six men from the right of the 
line.) 

Barge. 

Guard detail, right face. Forward, march. 

(He marches them down right steps to right balcony, where he posts 
one man, proceeding thence along the base of the back wall and post- 
ing one man at each entrance, the last one in the left balcony. Mean- 
time the women and children gather up the center of the stage and 
the main action proceeds.) 

First Territorial Official. 

(Coming down stage, followed by the other three officials.) 
Are you perfectly positive, Captain, that you can hold this 
place against the Indians? 

Ziebach. 

\Vhy, certainly not positive, sir. But t have little doubt of it 
if all our men stick to their posts. 

Official. 
But if they do not? 

Ziebach. 

(Shrugging his shoulders.) If they do not, the Dakota frontier 
will probably become as the Minnesota frontier is now. 

Official. 

{Picking up his carpet bag.) 1 remember that I was to meet a 
man the day after tomorrow in Sioux City on very important 
business. I must be going. {He goes off right wing exit.) 

Second Official. 

{Same business.) My poor, dear grandmother is sick in Ohio. 
I must go instantly to her bedside. {He follows the first official.) 

Third Official. 

{Same business). The instincts of patriotism impel me irre- 
sistably to draw my sword against the rebels in Virginia. Good- 
bye. {He follows the second official.) 



44 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Fourth Official. 

{Same business.) This frontier life is too crude and uninspir- 
ing for me. I return to the intellectual atmosphere of Phila- 
delphia. (He follows the third official). 

(Stanage enters at left.) 

Sentry. 

{In left balcony.) Halt! Who comes there? 

Stanage. 
A friend; John Stanage. 

Sentry. 

Advance, friend, and be recognized. {Stanage advances to foot 
of balcony.) Pass, John. 

(Stanage goes down stage.) 

Ziebach. 

Ah, John Stanage. What news, John? 

Stanage. 

I am just in from Jim River. A party of hostiles attacked my 
place at sunrise this morning and ran off my stock. They at- 
tacked Greenway at the ferry house, too. 

Ziebach. 

Um! They are coming close. {Turns to his men.) Corporal 
Kingsbury, occupy the blockhouse with three men. 

Kingsbury. 
Yes, sir. 

(Kingsbury with three men goes up in centre balcony.) 

Sentry. 

{In left balcony.) Captain Ziebach, there are horsemen coming 
up the stage road. 

Indians? 



Ziebach. 
Sentry. 



No, sir; soldiers. 



(Captain Nelson Miner, followed by a detachment of cavalrymen of 
Company A, Dakota Cavalry, enters at left. The crowd cheers. Miner 
and Ziebach exchange salutes, then shake hands.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 45 

Ziebach. 

You and your men are most welcome, Captain Miner. Have you 
seen any enemy? 

Miner. 

We just had a skirmish with a small war party at the Norwegian 
Lakes, twelve miles east. We drove them into the slough grass 
south of the lakes. 

Picofte. 

{Bushing in from the left, regardless of the sentry's challenge.) 
Indians! Indians! 

(Consternation and cries in the crowd.) 

Ziebach. 
How many? Where from? 

Picotte. 
Hundreds of them. They have fired the prairie around Stuts- 
man's claim cabin, north of town. 

The women groan and huddle together, excepting Miss Edgar, who 
stands to the right, alone and quite calm.) 

Ziebach. 

Take your posts, men. (The men scatter to the several exits and 
balconies.) Corporal Edmunds, hold that sally-port. (Indicating 
right stage exit.) Don't let the enemy get through there at any cost. 

Edmunds. 
We will hold it, sir, as long as any of us are alive. 

(He goes to right stage exit with two men.) 

Stutsman. 

(Going to left stage exit and rolling a barrel in front of it.) 

I can't move around very lively, so I'll stay right behind this 
barrel till my bullets are used up or I get killed. 

Old Dakota. 

(Running from left wing exit to left stage exit and peering over 
Stutsman's head.) 

I'm a-f eared him In j ins won't come! I'm a-feare*d him In j ins 
won't come! 



46 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

(Shots and shouts are heard off rear. The women groan and cry 
out. A man runs from the right wing exit and crouches beside the 
women, dropping his grin. Miss Edgar draws her revolver and, walk- 
ing to the skulker, points it in his face.) 

Miss Edgar. 

Go back to your duty, with the men! Go back, or you'll never 
see another sunrise! Do you think, because only the \vomen are 
here, you can skulk behind our skirts? Stand up. (He obeys.) 
Take your gun. (He does so.) About, face. {He obeys.) Now, 
don't look around till you're back in your place. {He goes back 
to the right stage exit, she following him to the top of the steps 
with pointed revolver.) 

(A fusilade of shots is heard off rear, accompanied by shouts and 
war whoops. Some Indians, running and shooting, appear in the dis- 
tance off the wings and through the entrances. The women fall on 
their knees in prayer. The men along the vail fire, and answer the 
Indian war whoops with cheers. The Indians disappear, the war 
whoops recede and there is a sudden silence. Corporal Edmunds and 
his men step back in surprise from the right stage entrance. Strike- 
the-Hee, his blanket over his head, enters there and advances with 
slow, firm tread to the center of the stage, the orchestra playing a 
strain from "The Indian Lament." The crowd shrinks away from him.) 

Strike-the-Ree. 
{Dropping his blanket to his feet.) How, koda. 

Ziebach. 

{Donbtfnlly.) How! How! 

Strike-the-Ree. 

White men, near sixty summers ago my brothers, Lewis and 
Clark, wrapped me, a baby, in the flag of stripes and stars and 
made me a true American. As the stars of that flag, I am stead- 
fast. Today, a ghost out of the dead past, I return. I come to 
tell you that the hostile Sioux have sought our aid in vain. You 
may go back to your cabins and your friends, fearing nothing. 
The Yanktons stand, a ridge of rock, between you and danger. 
White brothers, fare you well. 

(With cries of gratitude and thanksgiving, the crowd surges around 
Strike-the-Ree. But he draws his blanket over his head and slowly 
goes off through the right stage exit, the orchestra playing a strain 
from "The Indian Lament." The soldiers leave their posts and the 
crowd disperses through the several exits.) 

THIRD EPISODE. 

Scene 4. 

The Coming of the Railroad, 1873 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 47 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 4. 

Charlks Eiseman, a Yankton merchant 

Captaix Martin Coulson, a steamboat master 

C. T. Campbell, a Bon Homme County ranchman 

Charles G. Wicker, Manager of the Dakota Southern Railroad 

(Eiseman enters from the left, Coulson from the right wing. They 
meet down stage.) 

Eiseman, 

Good afternoon, Captain Coulson. I didn't know you were in 
town. 

Coulson. 

I just arrived with the steamer "Nellie Peck," downward bound 
from Fort Benton. 

Eisemon. 
What kind of a trip? 

Coulson. 

Bad. A few hundred bales of buffalo hides and some dis- 
charged soldiers from Fort Buford and Fort Rice. 

Eiseman. 

That's rather poor picking for a boat of the Coulson Packet 
Company, Mart. 

Coulson. 

It is. The Northern Pacific Railroad will soon reach the Mis- 
souri north of Fort Rice, and it will cut into the steamboat traffic. 

Eiseman. 

I suppose so. And now you have to contend against the same 
difficulty here at Yankton, since the completion of the Dakota 
Southern last winter. 

(Campbell, in cowboy attire, enters at the left.) 

Eiseman. 
Here comes General Campbell. 

Coulson. 
Y'es. He's a cattle man, isn't he? 

Eiseman. 

He is. {Greets Campbell.) How are you, General? What 
brings you to Yankton? 



48 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Campbell. 

I came down to your confounded town with four hundred 
steers from the range. And here I find myself in an infernally 
nasty fix. 

Eiseman. 
What's wrong? 

Campbell. 

Why, I just have a telegram from Sioux City that the cattle 
market has jumped sky high. 

Coulson. 
I should think that would be just what you would like. 

Campbell. 

It would be if I could get my cattle there in time to take ad- 
vantage of the blasted market. But if I drive them down in less 
than a week, they'll lose all their flesh. And if I don't get them 
there within the next day or two, the market will probably go 
off" again. 

Coulson. 

Tell you what I'll do. I'm taking the "Nellie Peck" to Sioux 
City and she's running so light this trip she can jump the sand- 
bars. I'll knock up stock pens on the lower deck and take some 
of your cattle and get them to Sioux City day after tomorrow. 

Campbell. 
By Jupiter, that sounds good to me! How many can you take? 

Coulson. 
Let me see. Oh, a hundred head. 

(Wicker enters at the left and approaches stage.) 

Campbell. 

Uh? Lord, that's not many! But it'll be better to get the top 
on a hundred than on none. 

Eiseman. 

General, here comes Charlie Wicker, manager of the Dakota 
Southern Railroad. Perhaps he'll have something to say to you. 

Wicker. 
(Arriving down stage.) What's wanted, Charlie? 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 49 

Campbell. 

Could your railroad get some cattle into Sioux City for me in 
a hurry, Mr. Wicker? 

Wicker. 
Certainly. How many? 

Campbell. 
Four hundred. 

Wicker. 

I can telegraph down at once for stock cars, have them here 
this evening, load the cattle and get them all into Sioux City 
for you tomorrow noon. 

Campbell. 

By heaven, that's talking! That's what I like to hear! Order 
your cars, Mr. Wicker. 

Coulson. 

But what about my boat? I can give you a lower freight rate 
on a hundred head. 

Campbell. 

. What of it? The difference in freight is mighty little compared 
with what I'll make by getting my critters in for the high market. 
Much obliged. Captain, but I'll have to patronize the railroad. 
(Campbell and Wicker exit right together.) 

Eiseman. 

You see. Mart. As I told you, the railroads will kill the steam- 
boat traffic. 

Coulson. 

Yes, I suppose it's true. We'll soon have to go out of the busi- 
ness. (As they go off left.) But there are still a few prosperous 
years left for the boats, plying up to the army posts and the Mon- 
tana settlements, before the railroads reach them. 

THIRD EPISODE. 
Scene 5. 

Sacred Heart Academy and Hospital, 1884-1896 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 5. 

Rt. Rev. Martin Marty, Vicar Apostolic of Dakota Territory 
Father Hammel, a Roman Catholic priest 
Sister Flavia, a Benedictine nun 
Benedictine nuns. 

(Right Reverend Martin Marty and Father Hammell, in priestly 
robes, enter at left wing and pass slowly up the steps to stage.) 



50 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Father Hammel. 
You arc pensive today, monscigneur. 

Mgr. Marty. 
My thoughts are troubled. For many years I wandered the 
Dakota prairies, ministering to the spiritual needs of the Indians. 
At length I established here, on the great blufT which guards 
Yankton on the West, a school where the boys of the red race 
might receive Cliristian education. I have devoted other years to 
its upbuilding. 

Father Hammell. 
But why should the recollection of so noble a work give rise 
to troubled thoughts? 

Mgr. Marty. 
It is not the recollection of the work itself which troubles me. 
It is the lack of results. Our school is not doing the good it once 
did. 
^ Father Hammell. 

Perhaps it is too far from the great reservations. The Indian 
youths are attending other schools which have been established 
nearer to their homes. " 

Mgr. Marty. 
Yes. But, since that is true, the Sacred Heart Academy must 
have outlived its usefulness. Its functions will have to be changed. 

Father Hammell. 
But to what new purpose? 

Mgr. Marty. 
That I cannot say. I feel that it will not rest in my hands. I 
have grown old and weary with the labors of a long life. I must 
charge those who will come after me with the duty of seeing that 
the institution which I have established shall continue to serve 
humanity in some useful way. 

(Mgr. Marty slowly departs by the right stage exit, accompanied to 
the doorway by Father Hammell, who then, musing, returns to center. 
Sister Flavia, in the garb of a Benedictine nun, followed by three 
other sisters of the same Order, enters at left wing. Sister Flavia 
meets Father Hammell down stage.) 

Sr. Flavia. 
Your reverence, this great Western country is fast filling with 
people. They are a strong people. But, as everywhere, illness or 
accident must sometimes befall them. In all this region there is 
no institution where they can receive proper care in such times 
of misfortune. 

Father Hammell. 
That is very true. It is a sore need which should be filled. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 51 

Sr. Flavia. 
The territory of Dakota has built here at Yankton a splendidly 
equipped asylum for its insane. It is now the desire of the Order 
of the Benedictine Nuns to take over the property of the Sacred 
Heart Academy and convert it to the uses of a hospital. 

Father Hammell. 
That is a project which, I am sure, would have met with ihe 
hearty approval of Bishop Marty. Such a hospital must prove a 
wonderful boon to the people of this entire country today. 

Sv. Flavia 
I feel not only that to be true, but that it should grow with 
the yeai's into one of the great hospitals of America, an enduring 
blessing to the people of the Northwest and a source of pride to 
Yankton. 

(Tlie Sisters sing stanzas of "O Salutoris" and "Tantum Ergo." All 
leave the stage througti ttie right wing exit.) 

THIHD EPISODE. 

Scene G. 

The Founding of Yankton College, 1881 

CHARACTERS IN SCENE 6. 

Da. Joseph Ward, founder of Yankton College 

Prof. William M. Bristoll 

Mrs. Rosa O. Bristoll 

William P. Dewey, Jr. 

Edward D. Disbrow 

Edgar M. Hand ) first students of Yankton College. 

Jennie D. Ketchum 

Lena McGlumphy 

Children of the Yankton public schools. 

(A corner stone, representing the corner stone of the original col- 
lege building, is set at the center of the stage. Dr. Ward, Prof, and 
Mrs. Bristoll and the five original students, enter at the left stage 
entrance and group themselves about the corner stone.) 

Dr. Ward. 

Today, by the act of laying the corner stone of this first build- 
ing of Yankton College, we are bringing visibly into being the 
first institution of higher learning, not mei-ely of Dakota Terri- 
tory, but of the whole upper Missouri Valley. 

"We have asked you here today to witness that we pledge, as 
some have had to pledge before, 'our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor,' that this institution today established shall be car- 
ried on to the end of all that can be accomplished by human faith 



52 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

and human works, resting on and working under ttie blessing of 
God. We trust this college may be like a city set upon a hill, 
whose light and warmth shall reach to all around. We hope it 
may be like a high watch tower, from which may be gained so 
wide an outlook over the land that wise plans for the good of the 
commonweal may be made here that shall help to shape our 
state to the honoring of God and the bettering of man. 

"It is not often that history can be detected in the act of doing 
her work. She moves so silently that her greatest deeds are not 
suspected of their greatness until they stand in the long per- 
spective of time that is past. But today we can see her in the 
very act and article of her high work. Yet even this deed of to- 
day will take on more of beauty and power as the years go by. 
We shall live long enough to look back with gladness and pride 
to this day. These children will see its worth more than we. 
Children not yet born will tell the story of this corner stone and 
draw from it lessons for the encouragement of those to come 
after them — for we cling fast to the thought that this institution is 
to endure as long as the hill shall last and the river run." 

(At tlie conclusion of Dr. Ward's address a pi'ocession of school 
children of the Yankton public schools enters at the left and, passing 
across the stage, goes out at the right stage exit, each child, as he 
passes the corner stone, depositing upon it a floM^er, as was done at 
the laying of the corner stone of Middle College, June 15, 1882. While 
the children are passing, a choir behind the scenes sings the college 
hymn, "Christ for the World," and the bell in the tower of Middle 
College rings in rhythm with the music.) 

Finale. 

THE ULTIMATE CITY. 

(As the music ceases, the spirit of E-hank-ton-wan appears in the 
middle balcony. She addresses the group of college faculty and 
Students.) 

E-haiik-ton-iuan. 

Ye men of virile, strong-souled breed. 
Of vision, will and power. 
You bring E-hank-ton-wan at last 
Her long-dreamed triumph hour. 

Not vain the formless centuries 
Whose lapping tides have rolled 
The layered garner of their years 
Deep oe'r my prairie mold. 

For out of dust the flowers are sprung; 
Temples from rocks are cast; 
God builds, by hands of godlike men, 
The future from the past. 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 53 

(E-hank-ton-wan addresses her words to the audience and the 
college faculty and students slowly retire through the stage exits.) 

To you I gave my giades and glens, 
Wide meads and rustling trees, 
My silken canopies of sky. 
The perfume of my breeze. 

I gave you more; a virgin world, 
Plastic and smooth and still. 
That from it you, like gods, might carve 
The sculptures of your will. 

Brave is your promise, big with hope 
Of all the years shall bring. 
As in the acorn slumbering lies 
The future forest king. 

Here, in the heart of freedom's home. 
You, for your city's dower. 
Hold wealth that many a nation lacks 
To gird its throne with power. 

Send forth your plows! This teeming soil 
Must yield more bounteous bread 
That here a hundred mouths be filled 
Where one today is fed. 

Across the dun Missouri fling 
The bridge span, leaping free. 
Whereon the wealth of northern fields 
Shall seek the southern sea. 

Wall back the river's wasting flood 
Between its cloven hills. 
And bid the bitted waters be 
The strength of whirring mills. 

Strike deep the pick! Your very bluff's 
Are wrought of magic clay 
To rear a thousand towering Romes 
Time cannot sweep away. 

But, greater than these gifts of earth, 
Whose gain is labor's toll. 
Cherish your nobler heritage 
Begotten of the soul; 



54 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Your shrines of love to brother men 
In mind or body ill. 

Your fount whence wisdom's waters flow 
And all may drink who will. 

Ready to guide and guard your course, 
Here, at your side, behold, 
Ranked like the angel host of Mons, 
Your mighty men of old; 

They who bequeathed you mastery 

Of glebe and glen and wave. 

The loins of strength, the brain of power, — 

These are my city's brave! 

(Strike-the-Ree enters at right stage entrance and slowly advances 
down rigtit center of stage. As Strike-the-Ree enters, the remaining 
Indians of the cast, divided in two equal groups, enter at right and 
left wings in slow procession, mount the wing balconies and group 
themselves there and on the steps leading thereto. As the other 
typical characters, at E-hank-ton-wan's summons, successively appear 
upon the stage, their contemporaries of the period in which they ap- 
peared in the pageant enter at the right and left wings in equally 
divided groups and arrange themselves in front of the wing balconies 
until, with the entrance of Dr. Ward, the entire cast is assembled upon 
the scene.) 

Stalks with your step a dusky shade. 

Sprung of the prairie sward; 

Lord of the wilderness, yet of whom 

The wilderness was lord; 
(Pierre Durion, Sr., enters at left stage and advances down left 
center.) 

And he, the careless, gallant Gaul, 

The future's architrave, 

"Who flung dawn's beacon down the West, — 

These are my city's brave! 

(Capt. Meriwether Lewis enters at right stage entrance and ad- 
vances down right center.) 

Here, the explorer, striding on. 

At jest with death and pain, 

To strip the close-gripped cloak of fear 

From torrent, peak and plain. 

(Capt. J. B. S. Todd enters at left stage entrance and advances down 
left center.) 

The trader, too, of log-built fort 
And nomad camp, who gave 
An empire's commerce to the world, — 
These are my city's brave! 

(Bishop Martin Marty enters at right stage entrance and advances 
down right center.) 



THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 55 

Here paces he, the meek-browed priest, 
The valiant ranks between, 
Who bowed the warrior's haughty knee 
Before the Nazarene; 

(John Stanage enters at left stage entrance and advances down left 
center.) 

Tile hardy husbandman, whose hand 
Made the waste places bloom, 

(Capt. Nelson Miner enters at right stage entrance and advances 
dovi^n right center.) 

The soldier, warding with his life 
The threat of savage doom; 

(Governor William Jayne enters at left stage entrance and ad- 
vances down left center.) 

The statesman, curbing force with law, 

(Dr. Joseph Ward enters at right stage entrance and advances down 
right center.) 

And he who dared to crave 

For brotherhood no law need curb, — 

These are my city's brave! 

These are my city's guides and guards; 
Press on! Ye dare not fail! 
They bid you bear her destiny, 
To heights not theirs to scale; 

To give their "Village at Ihe End" 
The glory of its name 
And make the "City Ultimate" 
The crown of Yankton's fame! 

(Led by the orchestra, the entire cast unites in singing: THE 
HYMN OF YANKTON, the Ultimate City.) 

[Air: Yorkshire.] 

Fair mother of Dakota, at whose feet 

The rolling river and the prairies meet. 

Before thy throne thy loyal children raise 

To thee, their song of fealty and praise; 

Of all their hopes that down the future gleam, 

Thou, Yankton, art the substance and the dream. 



56 THE PAGEANT OF YANKTON 

Thy shining spires and roofs were lifted here 
By sturdy Puritan and Cavalier, 
Beside whom toiled, with skilful, eager hands, 
Thy foster sons, new come from alien lands. 
They builded with their lives a proud estate 
For us, their heritors, to make more great. 

(All kneel, with upraised arms and faces turned toward the front of 
the stage.) 

Oh, mother beauteous, as we bend the knee 
And pledge renewed allegiance unto thee. 
Our hearts in gratitude are raised to God 
Beneath whose grace we hold thy fruitful sod. 
May He vouchsafe us, of our faults refined. 
To make thee, Yankton, blest of humankind! 

(All rise, followed by the orchestra, and the audience and the entire 
assemblage unites in singing: 

AMERICA. 
My country, 'tis of thee. 
Sweet land of liberty — 
Of thee I sing: 

Land where my fathers died; 
Land of the pilgrim's pride; 
From every mountain side 
Let freedom ring. 

My native country! thee — 
Land of the noble free — 
Thy name I love: 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods and templed hills; 
My heart with rapture thrills; 
Like that above. 

Our fathers' God! To thee— 

Author of liberty — 

To thee we sing; 

Long may our land be bright 

With freedom's holy light — 

Protect us by thy might, 

Great God, our king! 

THE PAGEANT ENDS. 



COPYRIGHT 1916 BY JOSEPH MILLS HANSON 



PRINTEO BV YANKTON PKINTIN* COMPANY. YANKTON. SOUTH OAKOTA 



HBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 




016 088 120 3 



